A dancer lost in the neon lights, a melancholic robot under the rain, twilight sparks on asphalt.
These are the mental images that triggered Photon Rain http://www.refraction-labs.com/photonrain.html The work is a live dance and music performance in which a dancer’s movements are detected by a sensor and mapped to a system that generates abstract visuals and projects them on stage.
Photon Rain finds its inspiration in both body painting and action painting. As the dancer evolves on stage, she effectively paints with her entire body non-objective lightscapes. The synergy created by the choregraphy, visuals and live electronic music aims at recreating a virtual mental space of shadows gliding in ephemeral landscapes. The work follows an almost dramatic progression, where color, movement are main actors but remains open for the audience to project on it it’s own fears and fantasies.

Photon Rain’s “action light painting” is made possible by a software developed in-house using Max6. The system detects the dancer using a Microsoft Kinect 3D sensor and extracts a skeleton representation. The movement of key articulations is then mapped to a fluid simulation system whose force vectors are applied to a a particle system. The particles are rendered using color gradients with effects applied on top in order to generate the “light paint” projected on stage.

Photon Rain's original soundtrack has been composed by IDM and Minimal Techno producer Kronik Darling and is performed live by the artist during the performance.